Moderates must stand together

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Every community is subject to periodic contests for "hearts and
minds" between radicals and moderates. Throughout history, almost
all religious, political and social communities have had to deal
with angry, alienated individuals who turn to extremism. At this
time, as The Age reports, local Muslims are caught up in
such a struggle, with an intensity fuelled by the issue of
terrorism. For the past four years, Muslims in Australia have faced
collective suspicion even as they struggled to counter the
influence of an extreme minority, which is linked to a
Saudi-sponsored global network of fundamentalists. The
marginalisation and rejection that Muslims have endured through the
"war on terror" are key ingredients of the recipe for radicalism,
but still only about 5 per cent of Melbourne's Muslims are thought
to be hardliners (and even among the fundamentalists, most still
reject terrorism).

The moderate majority is resisting extremism and Muslim leaders
are increasingly doing so publicly. Other Australians have a role
to play in making Muslims feel part of the broader community - the
committed, inclusive approach of regional centres such as
Shepparton shows how well Islam can fit into modern Australian
life. This was one reason Muslim leaders hailed federal support for
local programs to train imams.

Muslims are thinking hard about their place in the world and
recognising the threat that extremism presents. Last month, the Pew
Global Attitudes Project produced heartening evidence of this (but
also disturbingly rampant anti-Semitism) in all the Muslim
countries it surveyed. With the exception of Jordan, with its large
anti-Israeli Palestinian population, support for "violence against
civilian targets" fell sharply since 2002 and particularly in the
past year, as did approval for Osama bin Laden. Muslims see for
themselves that it is not the West that has suffered most attacks;
it is Muslim nations. Most victims have been Muslims. Furthermore,
the report finds "large and growing majorities in Morocco (83 per
cent), Lebanon (83 per cent), Jordan (80 per cent) and Indonesia
(77 per cent), as well as pluralities in Turkey (48 per cent) and
Pakistan (43 per cent), say democracy can work well and is not just
for the West".

In short, moderate Islam is winning the ideological battle
against extremists, who have proved to be their own worst enemy.
The extremists cannot win the political or theological arguments -
that is why some turn to violence, knowing division and fear are
their most effective allies. People from all Australia's
communities must work together to ensure the extremists fail.